hello there. welcome to "newsline." it's friday, january 11th. i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. egyptian president has agreed to pakistans have seen one of

their bloodiest days in years. they wounded more than 250. a suicide bomber detonated his explosiv explosives. police arrived at the scene. then a car bomb exploded. police say 56 people were killed. 116 wounded. a militant group issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack. a roadside bomb exploded earlier in the day. it killed at least 12 people. in separatist group claims responsible saying they were targeting security forces. a bomb killed 23 people at a religious gathering in the swat valley. the motives are not clear. government officials say 40,000 people have been killed in terrorist attacks over the last ten years. egyptian president morsi has agreed to cooperate with iran to call on syria's government and

opposition forces to halt fighting. morsi met iranian foreign minister in cairo on thursday. like the united states and gulf nations egyptian is urging assad to resign and supports the opposition but iran is backing the assad administration with russia. after the meeting they held a news conference. >> translator: to solve the situation in syria iran's cooperation is necessary. >> translator: the situation in syria should be solved by syrian, not by intervention from other countries. >> iran will cooperate with egypt. they will support mediation efforts by the un. the public standoff between

journalists and government officials is making more headlines. staff say they were censored. they have used their latest edition to take a jab at the communist party. >> reporter: the southern best weekly published its second edition on thursday. >> translator: i came to buy the news to know what's happening and to know the truth. >> translator: media restrictions are getting tighter. >> reporter: they did not run a story detailing their complaint.

editors wrote even though the party had the right to control the media, it should change with the times. no major rallies happened on thursday outside the head office. hundreds of protesters have gathered for three straight days. but authorities deployed police forces. the united states criticized the chinese government over the alleged censorship. foreign minister hong lei essentially told the country to other countries should not interfere with china's internal affairs.

>> another newspaper is getting creative in its effort to show support for nanfang zhoumo. the beijing news carry the cryptic story on wednesday. writers link the dish to brave hearts that can soothe souls. nhk world, beijing. chinese maritime authorities have decided to maintain regular patrols. china and taiwan claim the senkaku islands. china's state media discussed maritime policies. the head of the state oceanic administration said his office will assume greater responsibility for maintaining

the country's maritime interests. the participants decided to order regular patrols around the islands they call dalew. japan nationalized them in september. china has been sending ships to the area ever since. china's long-time territorial disputes with other countries. the chief cabinet secretary said japan cannot accept china's decision. the islands are inherently japanese territory. he says that's been shown through history and international law. he said the government will continue air and sea surveillance to protect areas around the islands. japan maintains an air defense idtificaon zonoverhe east china sea just outside the air space. aircraft are required to notify the authorities if they plan to fly inside the zone. defense officials say at least ten chinese military approached the area on thursday.

some of the planes entered the zone but they didn't fly into japanese air space. commanders scrambled fighter jets and the chinese planes left the area. south korean psidentlect park geun-hye has met with officials in seoul. she met vice foreign minister zhang zhijun on thursday in her office. she wants to improve bilateral relations. a spokesman for park said the president-elect has vowed a stern response to north korean provocations including nuclear and missile development. she added that south korea is open to dialogue with the north, including humanitarian assistance. zhang voiced hope that ties will further improve under the new leaderships in both countries. zhang also referred to

discussions at the u.n. security council on north korea's recent rocket launch. he said china is opposed to sanctions to the north proposed by the united states and south korea. >> japanese prime minister abe has suggested that his government may consider introducing more nuclear power and even allowing the construction of new facilities. the first package will be worth about $120 billion. the funds will be allocated to three areas. more than $40 billion will go to post disaster rebuilding. these will include repairing infrastructure. about $20 billion will be spent on measures to ensure security for people's daily lives and to

revitalize local communities. along with this will come s subsidies of 16 billion dollar. about $35 billion will be spent on boosting growth to achieve wealth creation. this is the second time since the collapse of lehman brothers that the japanese have come up with a stimulus of this scale. the total package will be about $230 billion. this will push up gross domestic product by 2% and create 600,000

jobs. finance ministry officials say a shrink in surplus is causing an account deficit here in japan. the current account is in the negative for the first time in ten months. financial analysts place the november account deficit at about $2.5 billion. the trade in goods deficit came to more than 9.5 billion dollar. eu and chinese consumers have been buying fewer japanese products. company directors saw exports fall by 4.2% over last year while imports rose by 0.8%. time to get a check on the markets. the yen remains weak on speculation that the prime minister will push for further monetary easing measures. the dollar hit the 89 yen level for the first time in two and a

half years. that pair trading at 89.07 to 12 at the moment. the euro hit the 118 level for the first time in 20 months. that pair is changing hands at 118.10 to 15. market participants say worries about the debt situation in the euro zone has eased due to positive comments on the regional economy from the european central bank president. let's see how this is affecting the stock market. the weaker yen is prompting export on stocks. let's take a look at how other markets in the asia pacific are performing. south korea's kospi trading

modestly in the negative down about .10 of a percent. look likes a bit of a mixed picture today. over in the united states president ama h revealed his nomination for his treasury secretary. his chief of staff jack lew is poised to replace timothy geithner. >> over the years he's built a reputation as a master of policy who can work with members of both parties. jack has my complete trust. i hope the senate will confirm him as quickly as possible. >> mr. president, i look forward to continuing the challenges ahead. >> lew is 57 years old. he's well versed in financial policy. he served as director of the office of management and budget

from 1998 to 2001 and from 2010 until last year. he took the post as white house chief of staff one year ago. lew must wait for lawmakers to confirm his nomination. he'll face his first big test next month. that's when president obama is to confront congressional leaders again over raising the borrowing limit called the debt ceiling. i'll have more headlines next hour. here is a check on markets.

the race is under way to win the olympic honor. tokyo's governor made his pitch no london. he addressed more than 100 foreign journalists. >> i have a big passion for sports to come to london for the games. >> it's clear that tokyo's new olympic stadium will be a great venue perhaps even one of the world's greatest. >> committee members said the 2020 games in tokyo would be a dynamic event that could take place in one of the world's safest and most dynamic cities. tokyo lost out on the 2016 games to rio de

the tokyo news team held a meeting there. >> compared to four years ago they've taken a step back. they have learned from the 2016 bid. >> i think their continuing the radiation following the disaster is still an issue. quite often in these situations it's the perception rather than reality that's the problem. >> tokyo is facing two competitors. istanbul, turkey would be the first muslim city to hold the games. crews in madrid have already prepared 80% of the venues there. >> translator: stay sharp. dive headlong into grasping the goal. >> ioc members will announce the winner in september at their

general assembly. u.s. president barack obama will hold talks at the white house on friday with his afghan counterpart karzai. they have to decide how many troops will remain in afghanistan. a white house official said on tuesday that the u.s. could consider a complete pull out from afghanistan. the official said the so-called zero option is one of the scenarios being considered. the announcement prompted display back in afghanistan. >> translator: if all u.s. troops leave afghanistan after 2014, it will be civil war again. we expienc civil war in the past, and it will happen again if all the troops go home. >> it's a kind of political game. probably they may like to show the worst picture for the entire world.

probably they may pass a very unhappy message to the insurgents, taliban and extremist groups in the region. >> reuters said the white house will try to ke 3,000 to 9,000 troops in afghanistan beyond 2014 compared to the 68,000 there now. obama is scheduled to meet with karzai on friday. they have many delicate issues to address, and finding an agreement that's acceptable to both sides is expected to be difficult. terrible traffic and soaring land prices are some of the unwelcome features of asia's booming cities. those are acute in vietnam. solutions include a railw company that wants to use lessons learned in japan to help vietnam build cities of the

future. >> reporter: in vietnam it's booming. people pour into the city looking for work. not everyone is moving forward. the traffic getting worse every year and dangerous too with more and more accidents. poor road infrastructure isn't the only problem. land prices have spiked. a unit was set up next to vietnam's largest city. he's trying to sell a business model that help japan during its period of economic growth. >> translator: industry in the area is already booming.

we hope to contribute to developing not only industry but housing and services too. >> reporter: they will develop other areas along cities like tokyo. without a master plan cities concentrate in commercial areas. the farther the suburb, the more inconvenient it is to get to the city center. downtown traffic only gets worse. japan's private railway companies use a different model. first they build railways into the suburbs then large residential areas. they provided quality housing at reasonable prices. people living along the railway could get to the city.

ey also show supermarkets and amusement parks. as consumer incomes grew the companies made money. tokyo hopes to adopt this model for vietnam by building commercial developments. >> translator: this window looks like it's closed but it's not. rain could leak in through here. >> reporter: using his research he proposes different types of housing suitable for the area. >> translator: i think it's important to think hard and work

together with people on the ground to develop the area. >> reporter: it's interested tokyo with the project and they have high expectations. >> translator: we are very glad to establish a partnership with a company that has so many years of experience developing urban areas and transportation networks. the railway centered approach from japan isn't the only idea on the table. companies from south korea and singapore have their own ideas. they're eager to find out how successful the japanese message will be.

people are dying at unnecessary rates because of variety of injuries, diseases and behaviors. the national research council released a joint report called shorter lives, poor health. it compares that to situations in japan, australia and nations in western europe. the findings show women in japan live the longest at almost 86 years. women in the u.s. come second lowest with a life expectancy of 81 years. japan men are in third at 79 years. american men are at the bottom. they have a life expectancy of 76 years. u.s. citizens finish last when it comes to child mortality. and they have the lowest probability of surviving to age

50. the report attributes the americans showing to poverty and obesity. its authors are urging the government to follow the lead of other nations by introducing preventative measures for becoming overweight. the high proportion of americans who don't have health insurance and the number of gun-related crimes are cited. the report calls for an action of gun violence and weapons ban in schools. israel is having unusual heavy snow for this time of year. we are joined from the weather desk with more on that. >> quite a rare sight. residents are experiencing an unusual event. heaviest snow in 20 years has disrupted transportation. schools are closed. about 15 centimeters of snow have fallen. some residents and soldiers seem to be enjoying these rare vents.

these are some children having fun sleighing. the soldiers look like they have having fun with the snow. let me show you the snowball fight and all the snow men making are going to be hold on if the rest of the area. precipitation will be likely dissipating. for the next 24 hours it will be clear ski. maybe some drizzles here and there. saturday coming back to the double digits. here in europe we have a system that's potent over the baltics. it's going to be bringing some snow activity. down toward the mediterranean we have thunderstorm gusts and hail. out towards this area this is the related system from this

one. it will be mainly snow in the alps rather than ra. here across the british isles things will be clear until tomorrow. you may see sleet in london. for friday five degrees here in london. lisbon at 14. moscow dipping down to minus 9. across asia we still have to talk about this tropical development. it's hitting toward the southern philippines and moving across the area bringing heavy downpours. this is also enhancing the easterly wind and flowing all this moisture as rain dumping it heavily in the heart of the philippines but for the next few days this will be an ongoing event which will be easily triggering further flooding situations and also worsening the land slides and mudslides in these areas. south western china will see mixed precipitation.

eastern china is where dense fog is still in store for you. please take extra caution if you're driving in these vicinities. out towards north eastern china and the low pressure system will be bringing snow. it will be dripping down into seoul. seoul you'll probably see snow on your saturday. north western japan this is where blizzard condition, blowing snow. this is still in store for us in the morning hours. that will be dissipating by the afternoon. very dry across the pacific side. it's been the same picture for quite a while with single digits for the lie for us. in sapporo dipping down to minus 4or your high. snow will be accumulating up to about 40 centimeters into our afternoon hours. down towards the tropics staying in the 30s. here is our extended forecast.

that wraps up this edition of "newsline." thanks for joining us.